THE EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE ON WORKER WELL- BEING AND THE MODERATING ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS

The authors explore the effects of organizational change on em-ployee well- being using multivariate analyses of linked employer-employee data for Britain, with particular emphasis on whether unions moderate these effects. Nationally representative data con-sist of 13,500 employees in 1,238 workplaces. Organizational changes are associated with increased job- related anxiety and lower job satisfaction. The authors find that job- related anxiety is amelio-rated when employees work in a unionized workplace and are in-volved in the introduction of the changes. A large empirical literature links flexible work specialization, innovations in lean production, the introduction of total quality management, “high- involvement management practices, ” and other organizational changes to improved workplace performance, chiefly through productivity growt